Holy Spirit Day 13: Belonging, Adoption

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” (Romans 8:16) I love this passage of Scripture. It is one that we need to remind ourselves of daily . When was the last time you prayed for the Holy Spirit to remind you that you are God’s son or daughter? When you fell in love with Jesus and trusted him as your Lord and savior, the Holy Spirit was poured into you. The Spirit of God totally transformed you spiritually and physically into a new creation. 2 Cor. 5:17

Gen 1 describes the first (physical) creation. John 1 describes the new (spiritual) creation. But this does not play into a false dichotomy between "physical" and "spiritual"; the first creation was both physical and spiritual. The new creation is really a re-creation, of the spiritual (first), but also the physical. In spite of John's "spiritual" emphasis, the "physical" re-creation should not be overlooked, and is something we often do. This is emphasized in John 2 with the changing of water into wine, in John 11 with the resurrection of Lazarus, and the emphasis of John 20-21 on the encounters, details and results of Jesus' own resurrection.

I think many in the church fail to embrace their complete adoption by God through the Spirit. They accept they are “saved” and a Christian but they never experience the fullness their adoption. A child who is an orphan can get adopted by a family. They can sit through the adoption process, see the papers signed, and understand they are no longer an orphan. However, do they understand what the love of being part of a family is? No, that comes from experience, from time spent in the family. The child experiences it if their first, then all their birthdays with that family, is the celebration of their life. They experience it when an orthodontist says it will be $5,000.00 for braces for them, and their parents do not hesitate to pay the money but do so telling the child they are worth it. The understand it later when the child now driving, gets in an accident and wrecks the family car; and no shame is directed towards them for wrecking the car, but joy and relief that they were not harmed. They feel it in the loving arms of their parents and kisses at night, and hear it in their prayers over them. The child at day one had a legal understanding they were adopted into a family, but fully understanding what a gift it is came after years of participating in the family.

Many people accept Christ, go through the Baptismal proceedings in a church, and walk away with the legal and head knowledge they are saved and adopted into the family of God, but unfortunately never experience the complete joy, love, hope, strength of that adoption, because they never place themselves daily in the embrace of their Father and the never fully participate in the life of their church family. They go through life living as an orphan, secluded from the family, and their identity is that of an orphan.

Read Romans 8:1-17 and John 14:15-20. Watch the short video I have attached on adoption by Francis Chan. Then take time to pray with the Holy Spirit over your identity and you adoption into the family of God. Reflect on how you are participating in and experiencing your gift of adoption. What are you missing out on? Pray for the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you to fuller participation in your salvation. Prayer for a more fuller understanding of your identity as a child of God.